Classical reception studies is the study of how the

classical world Classical antiquity (also the classical era, classical period or classical age) is the period of cultural history between the 8th century BC and the 5th century AD centred on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations ...

, especially

Ancient Greek literature Ancient Greek literature is literature written in the Ancient Greek language from the earliest texts until the time of the Byzantine Empire. The earliest surviving works of ancient Greek literature, dating back to the early Archaic Greece, Archa ...

and

Latin literature Latin literature includes the essays, histories, poems, plays, and other writings written in the Latin language. The beginning of formal Latin literature dates to 240 BC, when the first stage play in Latin was performed in Rome. Latin literature ...

, have been received since antiquity. It is the study of the portrayal and representation of the ancient world from ancient to modern times. The nature of reception studies is highly interdisciplinary, including literature, art, music, and film. The field of study has, within the past few decades, become an increasingly popular and legitimized topic of interest in Classical studies.

History

This area of study was first, and historically considered a subset of the

classical tradition The Western classical tradition is the reception of classical Greco-Roman antiquity by later cultures, especially the post-classical West, involving texts, imagery, objects, ideas, institutions, monuments, architecture, cultural artifacts, ritu ...

. Before ''reception'' gained interest, the ''classical tradition'' was discussed and popularized in the 1920s. While the ''classical tradition'' mainly focuses on how and why Classics fit into the modern world, the term ''reception'' now encompasses classical traditions, with a wide range over the interplay between the cultures that draw inspiration from classical societies and the past itself. Due to the nature of classical reception, which was heavily influenced by

reception theory Reception theory is a version of reader response literary theory that emphasizes each particular reader's reception or interpretation in making meaning from a literary text. Reception theory is generally referred to as audience reception in the an ...

, classical reception theory departs from the

in various ways. Tradition tends to put a premium on continuity, the simple passing down of one influence to another, the context that informed some earlier material. Reception, on the other hand, stresses the mediated, situated, contingent character of readings, and the concept that there is no final, correct meaning for any text. Charles Martindale, a pioneer in classical reception, stated that "our current interpretations of ancient texts, whether or not we are aware of it, are, in complex ways, constructed by the chain of receptions through which their continued readability has been effected. As a result we cannot get back to any originary meaning wholly free of subsequent accretions." Classical texts are not simply handed down, as implied by the Classical Tradition, but are in fact transformed as they are passed along. While scholars generally agree that classical reception differs from the classical tradition, the term classical reception has a variety of definitions. Classical reception scholar Johanna Hanink defines classical reception as "how the ancient past is visibly interwoven in the fabric of the present moment." The Open University's Classical Receptions in Drama and Poetry in English project adds that "classical receptions also involves analysis of the mediating aspects, such as translation, scholarship, cultural narratives (oral, written and performed) and the artistic and literary practices that create these."

Definition

Lorna Hardwick and Christopher Stray assert that Classical reception studies is devoted to examining "the ways in which Greek and Roman material has been transmitted, translated, excerpted, interpreted, rewritten, re-imaged and represented." Martindale notes that Classical reception "encompasses all work concerned with postclassical material." Hardwick has also previously defined classical reception as "the artistic or intellectual processes involved in selecting, imitating or adapting ancient works," but which also treats display and viewing as active processes. Hardwick and Stray state that scholars of reception studies hold the relationship between the ancient and modern to be reciprocal, although they acknowledge that others believe that reception studies only shed light on the receiving society, and not on the ancient text or its context. Although reception theory originated from

Hans Robert Jauss Hans Robert Jauss (german: Jauß; 12 December 1921 – 1 March 1997) was a German academic, notable for his work in reception theory (especially his concept of horizon of expectation) and medieval and modern French literature. His approach was d ...

in the late 1960s, Classicists had been about 30 years later to officially adopt the term. Wide-scale acceptance did not occur until 2009, with the launch of Oxford's on-line periodical, th
Classical Receptions Journal

References

{{Reflist Classical studies Cultural heritage Cultural appropriation Western culture Western art Western philosophy Latin-language literature History of poetry History of literature Classical historiography Cultural studies